Pages

Brett Kavanaugh is now Justice Kavanaugh of the U.S. Supreme Court. The photo above shows Justice Kavanaugh being sworn in by Chief Justice Roberts in the Justices' conference room. This is the actual room where the Justices meet and sit around a table and take a vote on the cases they have heard. There are several conference rooms at the Supreme Court building, and they have lovely old chandeliers, as shown below. In the Justice's conference room, the chandeliers were replaced with bright lights because one of the Chief Justices thought it would help them to see better. Look how bright that room is!

As the Junior Justice, it will be Kavanaugh's duty to answer the door to the conference room, should anyone come knocking while the justices are meeting. The doors to the conference rooms are very tall and heavy and ornate. There will be security and staff and workers, but not directly inside the room, which is private, since the deliberations are considered secret. The junior justice is also in charge of taking notes during the meetings.

Another duty of the Junior Justice is to supervise the cafeteria that is on the ground floor of the Supreme Court building. That cafeteria is open to the public and is frequented by staff from the U.S. Capitol building across the street. When Elena Kagan was the junior justice, she earned a reputation of having healthy foods in the cafeteria. The cafeteria had a well-stocked, fresh salad bar. She also introduced some local foods from her region. Since Justice Kavanaugh is from Maryland, perhaps he will introduce crab cakes and hush puppies to the cafeteria line-up. Maryland is also known for its official dessert, Smith Island cake, a yellow cake that has many thin layers, each cemented to the next with a layer of rich chocolate filling. We'll have to wait and see what goodies this new justice brings to the cafeteria.

The Supreme Court hears cases in an ornate old courtroom that has much of the original furniture from 1935, when the building was completed. The Justices sit on a raised stage, behind a long desk. Each Justice gets a special chair made to his or her measurements and specifications. Considering they have to sit for long hours listening to case arguments, they need comfy chairs. Sometimes a justice might appear to doze off, but you will never see this in pictures or video, because cameras are strictly forbidden in the Supreme Court courtroom. The hearings are audio recorded and the archives of those recordings are on the Supreme Court website.

When Justice Kavanaugh comes to work each day, he does not have to walk up the tall staircase out front. There is a side door on the ground level, and elevators that go to the courtroom level.

Above the courtroom is a gymnasium and basketball court. It is open when the court ends for the day. If someone were shooting hoops during court, it would sound like boom boom boom on the courtroom ceiling. Can you picture Justice Kavanaugh going up to the gym to shoot hoops with Justices Gorsuch and Kagan? Maybe, right? Or maybe he will join Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in doing callisthenics and thai chi?

Note: Susan Basko, the author of this blog, is an attorney and counselor of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Sue Basko

Sue Basko is a lawyer in California, Illinois, and is an attorney and counsellor of the U.S. Supreme Court. She works in law for music, film, design, indie journalism, protest law, and land use planning. She earned a Juris Doctorate graduating maga cum laude. She has a B.A. in Film and Video and attended graduate school in Radio/ TV/ Film with an emphasis on digital production, media law, and management. She has produced and directed hundreds of low-budget TV shows and videos, as well as doing video, audio, and lighting tech on many large-scale events. She made shows for such organizations as Chicago Public Libraries, Chicago Public Schools, National Strategy Forum, Art Institute of Chicago. She hired crews and handled budgets. She directed tech on a large scale rave style dance floor, with special effects and computer-controlled lights. She worked staff at Northwestern University School of Law with the classes in Trial Practice, Trial Advocacy, Negotiations, and National Institute of Trial Advocacy (NITA).

Susan Basko assisted with a 2012 study conducted by OSCE-ODIHR (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights). She participated in a summit of many nations in Vienna, Austria, where her legislative proposals regarding independent media use in protests/ public assemblies were adopted and sent to the 70+ member nations.

Recently, she attended a semester-long seminar course taught by Deray McKesson of Black Lives Matter fame at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics. She also participated in Harvard University's School for Resistance.

CONTACT easily by email:

suebaskomusic@gmail.com

Notice

Folks, if it is not on my blogs (see links on sidebar), or on my owntwitter or my facebook, it is not me. I am never involved in anything distasteful or questionable. If you see something like this, it is not my words or work, but that of stalkers/ crazies.